NOVEL WEB Chapter 2: Return
“Huff…, huff….”
Consciousness coming back with the excruciating pain.
I let out a heavy breath and look at my surroundings.
“I… don’t think I died, at least.”
I don’t know what happened,
But I think I narrowly avoided death.
And,
‘Did I come all the way to the past?’
The original [Return from Death] skill could only turn back time by a few minutes.
However, if I look at the situation right now, it doesn’t look like only a few minutes have passed.
The place I am in right now is my room.
In other words, the room I used before I enrolled in the Academy.
‘I need information. I need to find out exactly when it is.’
The layout of my room is familiar, it is my room after all.
So, I turned on my cellphone and,
[2022, February 29th]
Not the year 2028, but 2022.
In other words, I came back to the day before the Academy entrance exam.
Parallel universe?
It wouldn’t be something like that.
After all,
[Title : Aren’t the Iris Academy too mean?]
First of all, I’m not an Academy graduate. I’m just a regular hunter.
As you all know, regular hunters earn money by selling mana stones they pick up from dungeons.
But honestly, isn’t the Academy holding exclusive rights to the dungeon too much? How come every single dungeon is owned by the Academy? Fuck.
I looked it up and 50% of all the dungeons are owned by the Academy. How does this make any sense?
If to this, we add the dungeons owned by guilds, there is, for real, no dungeon a regular hunter like me can go to.
And, on top of that, the Academy gets first dibs on every newly opened gate. If I exclude the dungeon entrance fee, I don’t get any money.
Fuck, isn’t this just the Academy monopolizing on everything?
Seriously, isn’t this some shit that should get fixed?
[Comments]
– so your rank?
ㄴ lol cant u tell from reading text? at most hes a D
ㄴ not even responding so must be true- If you’re just a regular hunter that just means you failed the entrance exam to the Academy lol
ㄴ frfr to be a hunter he has to graduate the Academy but since he couldn’t he’s just a piece shit- I agree the Academy fuckers monopolizing everything is taking it too far
– But isn’t the Academy a place where they teach students? Is it fine to hand such an institution that much authority?
ㄴ Even if students, they’re more skilled than most hunters. There’s a reason why people call them the world’s best.
ㄴ fr, tbh if not for the our country would have fallen. Just from looking at the case when the ungradable gate from which only high-level monsters came out 15 years ago, you can see what would have happened
ㄴ if they did that much 50%? thats nothing
These community posts, I definitely remember reading them before.
I definitely came back in time.
“Status window.”
And as soon as I’m done checking all of this, I shout the words “status window” out.
If I really came back in time, my attributes will have changed too.
[Status window]
Name : Park Si-woo
Level : 1 (1st Stage Awakener)
Status : Confused
[Strength : 1] [Stamina : 1] [Agility : 1] [Magic : 1] [Luck : 1]
(Remaining attribute points are 0.)
Skill :
(There are currently no skills.)
And as I expected, I see my attributes completely wiped out.
‘Even my Return from Death skill is gone.’
The [Return from Death] skill, which restrained my level and growth.
It seems even that skill is gone.
Thinking about it, I acquired the Return from Death skill after I entered the Academy.
It’s expected that I don’t have that skill yet.
‘This is an opportunity.’
Instead of being saddened by my skill disappearing I was excited.
Even though I try to hold it in, I can’t help but keep smiling.
No, there was no way I can’t smile.
It finally means that I, myself, could become stronger.
“I have never had a rebirth this good.”
Seo-ah, Ha-eun, and even Lee Hyun, they’re probably alive.
Because time has turned back.
They’re probably living normal lives.
However, this rebirth is different.
I came back 6 years into the past, not just a few minutes.
The only advantage of Return from Death is knowing the future.
Keeping that advantage as is, I can now even grow.
“I have to make sure I get strong. As soon as possible.”
The guy I met at the end,
That unidentifiable guy.
I need to get strong enough to beat him.
If I don’t, I have to see the guys die again.
‘…Anyway, could it be the Academy itself wasn’t an enemy?’
Up until now, I thought my enemy was the Academy itself.
As you can tell by the community post from earlier,
The voices of dissatisfaction with the Academy had been growing.
The Academy, tyrants that used their stature and power, and even by monopolizing the dungeons.
Due to their power making them untouchable even for most guilds,
Since I entered the Academy, I lived like the professors’ servant.
Artifacts, mana stones, etc.
Everything I got from the dungeons went to the professors.
[Ensuring success upon graduation from the Academy]
Due to this one slogan, most of the students turned their eyes away from reality and tried to get grades however they could.
This was why my party and I came up with a plan to kill the chairman and get rid of this injustice.
…Although, of course, at the end we failed.
‘Well, whatever, the Academy’s a bunch of assholes anyway.’
Even if the chairman, that is the person that holds the most power at the Academy, is killed by someone, nothing changes.
It didn’t change the fact that the Academy is already an organization full of scumbags.
‘So you’re saying, it’s definitely the day before the Academy entrance exam, right?’
Originally, I wouldn’t have even thought about going back to the Academy, a place I suffered so much.
In that Academy, where I instead lost all my colleagues,
I had no reason to be treated like a slave again there.
However,
‘I need to find out that fucker’s identity.’
The guy that killed me and my colleagues.
I have to find out the guy’s identity.
If I don’t, I’ll just get killed again.
‘I probably have time. There is a reason that fucker revealed that late. He even told me that he regained his strength.’
I don’t want to admit it, but his power was out of this world.
But the fact that he only appeared that late, even with that much power,
It means that he had some kind of restriction.
Based on what he said,
He has probably not been able to regain his strength yet.
And, if that is true, I need to get into the Academy before he finds all his strength and get rid of him.
He will be aware about the fact that I have come back to life, as well,
So, if I don’t go into the Academy and just avoid this situation, I’ll just be giving him time to regain his strength.
And he will definitely try to kill me and my colleagues again.
This is why, instead of avoiding it, I need to go at it head-on.
‘I have to get strong before him.’
I would prefer him not to remember, since I came back,
But there is probably a high chance that he’s aware that time has gone back.
And, considering he hasn’t killed me right away even after coming back in time, I can assume he’s still weak.
So I have to get stronger as soon as possible, before him.
With the knowledge of the future I gained from [Return from Death].
‘The problem is, to get into the dungeon ….’
However, what I have to solve first of all is the entry to the dungeon.
As the community post suggests, most of the dungeons are owned by guilds or the academy,
The few gates that aren’t, you need a Hunter license to be able to enter.
Whether the Hidden Piece or whatever, I need to be able to enter the dungeon,
The problem is I don’t have such permits.
-Bang bang
As I wonder how I could get myself into the dungeons,
I hear knocking on the door from outside.
With the strength as if they would break the door open,
I hear a voice talking over the incessant knocking.
“Hey, you fucker. Come out right now. You dare just ignore my calls?”
“Remember he’s just a coward. How dare you ignore my brother, a 2nd Stage Awakener, when he offered to show you around the dungeons?”
The voice of two men.
They seemed to be looking for me, with their sneering giggles.
‘…What’s with those dickheads?’
Did this happen 6 years ago?
I used to live alone, so there was no one really to look for…,
“Ah!”
The duo I had completely forgotten about because I hadn’t met them since entering the Academy.
They were just fuckers that took advantage of the fact they were 2nd Stage Awakeners,
And used it to treat me like their servant and their porter.
Their name was…,
Was it Park Byeong-jun, Park Jun-ho.
“If you don’t come right now, consider the fee for this dungeon experience to increase to 1 million won, you bastard.”
“We’ll give you 10 seconds. Grab your backpack and crawl out, quickly, if you don’t wanna end up in the hospital.”
The two men still talking outside.
‘Fuck off with your dungeon experience.’
The rewards earned from the dungeon.
You have to spend money to hire a porter to carry those rewards for you.
But, instead of spending money, they were planning on just using me by calling this a “dungeon experience”.
And on top of that, while using me as a porter,
Instead of giving me money, they were audacious enough to even rip me off money.
-Click
I open the door.
Originally, I would have just grabbed some money and followed them to gain some experience before entering the Academy, but this time I am different.
“Hey, you useless piece of shit. What took you so long? Fuck, did you get the money ready?”
“What are you laughing at? Did this fucker finally go cr….”
The two men, no different than back then.
No, come to think of it, I came back in time, so it shouldn’t be different to back then.
They both had strong physiques, and looked like gangsters, but,
‘Dumbasses.’
I try to hide my laughter but I can’t contain it.
They’re standing so confident just because they are 2nd Stage Awakeners.
Of course, they’re way higher than me, just a 1st Stage Awakener, but the real Awakening only begins at the 3rd Stage, so they were just a joke in my eyes.
Well, that’s better.
“Here, my entry fee.”
“What is… AAARGH!! LET GO! LET GO! I SAID LET GO!!”
I was wondering how I could enter the dungeon, but my entry ticket showed up just in time.
Things will probably work out better than I expected.